Microsoft has launched Microsoft Fabric, an end-to-end analytics solution with full-service capabilities including data movement, data lakes, data engineering, data integration and more which has everyone talking about what exciting opportunities this can bring.
One of our Power BI Specialists Megan Livadas shares her top thoughts and insights on Microsoft Fabric.
Microsoft Fabric through the lens of Power BI
1. New storage mode
With this announcement comes the launch of a new third storage mode for Power BI – Direct Lake. Typically, we use ‘Import’ mode as the default given the improved performance on transformational queries, only dabbling with Direct Query for real-time data or when large data volumes demand so.
Direct Lake will give you the query performance of Import Mode with the immediacy of DirectQuery. This is something in particular I can’t wait to get my hands on and discuss with clients.
2. Data Activator
Data Activator sounds set to be a very exciting tool for any clients who have struggled with limited alerting and subscription capabilities in Power BI. This will drastically improve alerting abilities with a low code interface allowing business users to set alerts based on trends and anomalies in their data.
Users will be able to set email alerts when a metric increases or decreases for example.
Excited to see what we can do here not only for business users but also for data quality alerting.
3. The end of Power BI desktop
With all these extra features moving into Power BI Service rather than desktop, it feels like a shift where primary development may no longer happen in desktop in the years to come.
It’ll still be there for now, but I can see this being phased out in favour of a unified solution in the browser alone.
4. To enable or not to enable
For any Power BI admins, you should check your tenant settings soon if you would not like to enable Microsoft Fabric for all users yet.
From July 1st this will become default switched on for all users unless switched off by admins.
Anybody not on premium can start a 60 day free trial of Microsoft Fabric now.
5. Data governance in the world of Microsoft Fabric
What does this mean for data governance? Microsoft strives to empower every person – not just developers! They don’t want to be big bad IT locking stuff away and telling organisations “This is too technical for you”. Their low code interfaces are designed to put data capability in the hands of all.
Whilst this is fantastic for small to medium enterprises looking to cut down silos and encourage innovation, what does this mean to large organisations striving for one source of the truth? The answer to this from Chris Webb, Principal Programme Manager for Power BI Customer Advisory Team was that OneLake is centred around having one copy of your data. Rather than various copies of data existing in siloed data warehouses across the business used for different purposes. The aim of OneLake is to centralise how we use our data.
Dataflows will no longer live in a black box never to be seen but written back to delta in lake. Business users and developers alike will create shortcuts to tables rather than creating copies in multiple applications. This will be great for users of Power Query, due to the scalable performance improvements that come with lake technology.
Personally, I think organisations will have to be mindful of their approach and consider how to govern their data without being “big bad IT” and keeping data tools hidden from people.
As a Dufrainian, I’m keen to get my hands on Fabric so I can really firm up my thoughts on this.
For a detailed overview of Microsoft Fabric’s features, check out our Modern Data Architecture with Microsoft Fabric.
6. Copilot for Power BI
Not to get lost in the excitement of Microsoft Fabric, is the exciting announcement of Copilot for Power BI.
Copilot brings the power of AI right to our reporting tool. Users will be able to describe visuals and insights they are looking for and Copilot will do the rest. Reports can be generated and tailored in seconds, as well as writing DAX, all using conversational language.
As for end users writing DAX and creating new reports with AI – I have some thoughts about how we govern this and maintain the golden source of truth organisations strive for.
Complex hierarchies and nuances in definitions can cause impactful discrepancies across how different areas of a business measure performance. At present, we use centralised data models with Power BI hierarchies and Key Measure tables to maintain this – allowing end users to build reports and customise, but with a centralised bank of metrics to keep organisations aligned.
By empowering and encouraging these users to write their own DAX in conversation language – can this still be achieved?
Overall, this is a great step forward for Microsoft as we find ourselves thrust into the age of AI. As always, the need for admins and an intentional governance strategy will be key. Copilot for Power BI is in private preview for now, so we have some time to wait before we can get our hands on this. In the meantime, it may be a good time to get your users familiar with Power BI Q&A (and get your data models ready to answer!)
7. Collaboration of Data Engineers and BI Developers
If one thing is clear from this release, Microsoft Fabric is a product aimed at many roles. Not just for the Data Engineers and the BI Developers, but for Data Analysts and Insight Explorers alike. I think this product may set a shift in how we define our data roles – siloed Data Engineers in Azure and BI Developers in Power BI will need to collaborate as shared tenant settings and capacity management become the norm.
At Dufrain, our consultants are already cross-discipline, but for organisations running BI Teams in a silo, it’s time to get your data teams together and consider what this release changes for data and admin responsibilities.
As a Power BI Specialist I feel it’s important to note that, overall, Power BI isn’t going anywhere and largely remains unchanged, other than now being part of the Fabric unified interface. I feel my colleagues in the data engineering space will be waiting to hear more about the new capacity-based pricing model as opposed to consumption-based pricing before firming up opinions on the new product. Our Synapse-loving Dufrainians will update the blog soon with their thoughts on what Fabric means for data engineers and architects.
Power BI in action
Looking to further your understanding of Power BI and how it delivers deeper, more meaningful dashboards and visualisations for data-driven insights? Watch our Power BI YouTube series to discover how.
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